Photo: Nuggets · CC BY 3.0Yellowhead County records more crime per resident than 86% of Canadian towns
Its Safety Grade is D, on crime the police covering Yellowhead County reported from 2023 to 2025: #429 of 474 in Alberta. Year on year, 13.1 violent incidents and 50.3 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 12.0 and 30.5 in the typical town its size. Split in two, the index gives 99.2 for violence and 129.3 for everything else (normally 89.4 and 56).
Statistics Canada, police-reported crime, 2023–2025 means. The index weighs each crime by its seriousness; rates are incidents per 1,000 residents a year. Crime severity, crime rate and incident counts: the Evansburg detachment area.
What stands out about safety in Yellowhead County
Mischief: high for a town its size
Yellowhead County records 16.6 incidents of mischief per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.7 in the typical town among Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. By type ↓
Non-violent crime leads the index
Set beside the typical Canadian town its size, Yellowhead County’s two halves part ways: 99.2 for violence (typical 89.4) and 129.3 for the rest (typical 56). By type ↓
A higher index than most towns its size
Of the 40 Canadian towns nearest it in size, Yellowhead County places 35th from the lowest index. Towns its size ↓
Much like Alberta’s towns
Yellowhead County’s index of 120 compares with 110 for the typical town in Alberta. Towns its size ↓
Written from Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025. Figures are what police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Yellowhead County’s grade
The grade weighs the Crime Severity Index and its violent half, averaged over 2023–2025, against every Canadian town and city neighbourhood of 1,000 people or more.
Its place: #429 of 474 in Alberta and #2,281 of 2,572 Canadian towns.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Yellowhead County’s crime by kind
Against the typical town its size, Yellowhead County runs highest on mischief (16.6 per 1,000 against 3.7), break and enter (9.1 per 1,000 against 2.2) and motor vehicle theft (5.5 per 1,000 against 2.4). Sexual assault and theft under $5,000 sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0.3 | 0.05 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 3 | 0.4 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 1.7 | 0.2 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0.7 | 0.10 | — |
| Robbery | 2.3 | 0.3 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 3.3 | 0.5 | — |
| Other violent violations | 1 | 0.1 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 63 | 9.1 | 12% |
| Possession of stolen property | 24.7 | 3.6 | 24% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 38 | 5.5 | 8% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 13 | 1.9 | 0% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 53.3 | 7.7 | 4% |
| Mischief | 115.3 | 16.6 | 13% |
| Weapons violations | 4 | 0.6 | — |
| Administration of justice violations | 41 | 5.9 | 78% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 9.3 | 1.3 | 43% |
| Drug violations | 12 | 1.7 | 81% |
| Impaired driving | 26.3 | 3.8 | 73% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 0.3 | 0.05 | — |
Statistics Canada’s violation groups for the whole police service or detachment, incidents a year its own. Cleared: incidents solved by a charge or otherwise, as a share of those reported.
Incidents per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 means, against the typical figure for Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Yellowhead County comes 35th of the 40 towns nearest in size
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drayton Ontario | 11,518 | 29 | 28.2 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 23 | Banff Alberta | 11,402 | 63 | 74.8 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 25 | Morinville Alberta | 10,763 | 66.4 | 81.6 | B− |
| 26 | Ponoka County Alberta | 10,670 | 67.6 | 54.5 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 30 | Lacombe County Alberta | 11,072 | 94.9 | 66.9 | C− |
| … | |||||
| 32 | Estevan Saskatchewan | 11,391 | 103.1 | 136.2 | C− |
| 33 | Smiths Falls Ontario | 11,093 | 105.1 | 147.6 | C− |
| 34 | La Tuque Quebec | 11,309 | 106.1 | 199 | C− |
| 35 | Yellowhead County Alberta | 10,966 | 120 | 99.2 | D |
| 36 | New Glasgow Nova Scotia | 10,378 | 128.5 | 146.4 | D |
| 37 | Sechelt British Columbia | 11,558 | 141.3 | 114.9 | D |
| 38 | Whitecourt Alberta | 10,708 | 146.3 | 128.4 | D |
| … | |||||
| 40 | Williams Lake British Columbia | 11,462 | 248.9 | 248.6 | D |
The 40 Canadian towns of 2,500+ people closest in population; city neighbourhoods, city totals and reserves are left out. Towns on one police service or detachment share its index.
The Canadian towns closest to Yellowhead County in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
The police area Yellowhead County is part of, 6,930 residents, recorded about 91 violent incidents a year (2023–2025)
Violent incidents per 1,000 a year, 2023–2025
Property crimes per 1,000 a year, 2023–2025
Statistics Canada counts actual incidents; those police record as unfounded are listed apart and kept out of its crime rates and severity index. Each incident is filed under its most serious violation, which the survey sets partly by the maximum penalty.
Property crime adds about 350 a year and other violations 150 (2023–2025 average). Of 1,000 dots, one per resident, the coloured ones are a year’s incidents at these rates.
From 2023 to 2025, Yellowhead County’s index held steady
Crime Severity Index
Its heaviest year came first: 2023, at 124.9, against a low of 110.5 in 2024. The comparison line, the typical Canadian town its size, runs from 69.5 in 2023 to 60 by 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Yellowhead County | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 124.5 | 60 |
| 2024 | 110.5 | 67.9 |
| 2023 | 124.9 | 69.5 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Yellowhead County, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Crime in the places around Yellowhead County
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellowhead County | 10,966 | 120 | 99.2 | D |
| Edson (28 km) | 8,692 | 122.3 | 93.1 | D |
| Whitecourt (62 km) | 10,708 | 146.3 | 128.4 | D |
| Woodlands County (63 km) | 4,778 | 120.9 | 106.4 | D |
| Mayerthorpe (69 km) | 1,419 | 178 | 232.8 | D |
The places around Yellowhead County all score higher on the index.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. The nearest places to Yellowhead County with figures are 28–69 km away.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Shared with the countryside. Detachment figures cover the detachment’s whole area: Yellowhead County together with the countryside and smaller places it polices.
- The index’s scale. The index is scaled so that Canada as a whole scored 100 in its base year, 2006: a town at 50 has half that severity per resident.
- What clearance means. Cleared means solved by police, charged or not; it says nothing about what courts decide.
- An index, not a verdict. One robbery outweighs a run of minor thefts here, since every crime counts by the sentences courts give it. Statistics Canada adds: “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
Questions about safety in Yellowhead County
Is Yellowhead County safe?
A Crime Severity Index of 120 (2023–2025), set beside a median of 66 for Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: that is where Yellowhead County stands, with 13.1 violent and 50.3 property incidents per 1,000 residents a year.
What is the most common crime in Yellowhead County?
Top of the list is mischief (16.6 per 1,000 residents a year); other Criminal Code offences, at 11.1, and break and enter, at 9.1, follow.
Is crime going up in Yellowhead County?
Not much: the index went from 124.9 in 2023 to 124.5 in 2025.
How much of Yellowhead County’s crime do police solve?
The weighted clearance rate is 32%: 68% for violent crime and 20% for non-violent. For the typical Canadian town its size it is 33%.
Whose figures are these?
Those of the police serving Yellowhead County together with its neighbours or the countryside around it.
Source: Statistics Canada, police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025 (Statistics Canada Open Licence); TownRatings calculation.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Crime severity index and weighted clearance rates, police services (tables 35-10-0186 to 0190, 0061, 0063, 0064), 2023–2025 · Statistics Canada, Incident-based crime statistics by detailed violations, police services (35-10-0178 to 0185) · Safety Grade: TownRatings calculation. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).